from where I'm sitting, you sound like you're trying to make sound horribly complicated and messy, something that's so simple.

Do you think?

This is a perfect example of over-thinking a photographic situation by making long lists of mistakes and potential fixes like "use base ISO". Base ISO? At night? Don't you think you should be going in the other direction on the ISO scale?

The OP's GX7 train image was 1/6 at ISO 800!!! By the way, tripods are always appropriate at night, but in this case you still need a fast enough shutter speed to freeze motion blur.

Here is my list for ways to improve above image:

1) Mount a large aperture lens like the PL 24 f/1.4 and crank up ISO until your shutter speed is fast enough to freeze the train

2) Take image

2) Go get some hot chocolate or an adult holiday beverage.

He wanted an underexposed image. Or he didn't want to freeze motion. It actually works, now I'm not sure how intense the light was from the train, but this was at night, ISO 200, handheld. I didn't have a tripod because I was commuting from work, and was bored, and just... clicked... while waiting for my ride. This isn't actually that nice of an image, but you can really shoot at night, handheld. And you can even go at faster shutter speeds but have an underexposed image. Depends on what you want.

Sorry that I deleted an underexposed, faster shutter speed version of this.

So please... stop dissing the fact that he wanted to go base ISO. Night does NOT always equal higher ISO. He probably wanted to have less of the train and just have lights and some reflected lights off the snow...

Thank you!

Obviously you understand exactly what I am trying to get across here.

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Tom

Hey Tom,

sure anyone can take blurry-ish shots of whatever handheld and at night, aiming at no particular result. But if that's the case then why bother with an extra piece of gear? A smartphone will be just fine.

Actually the friend who phoned me to tell me of the approaching train jumped in his car and imaged the train with his iPhone in video. Similar result: A mess.

The autoexposure system ended up over-exposing the whole thing leading to a blurry mess. At least I can shoot manual, independent of the metering!

Most of the stuff that I have seen in the press is also heavily overexposed. Folks got trapped into the same mistake(s) that I made.